Pelosi Key to Tax Deal in Lame-Duck Session

There’s at least one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on now. If Congress is to come to an agreement over extending the Bush-era tax cuts during the lame-duck session, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must climb aboard the process, Politico reports.

President Barack Obama has expressed a willingness to extend the tax cuts for everyone, at least temporarily, backing off his insistence that the cuts must end immediately for those with annual income of more than $200,000.

“We’re encouraged,” says an aide to a key Republican in the tax standoff. “But Obama needs to talk Nancy down off the ledge.”

Some administration officials say she’ll fall into line. “She will get some pressure from liberals who say, ‘What the hell, we might as well go out fighting,’” one official says. “But I don’t think she wants to do that.”